Contact: Diane Henderson         303/850-3465                dhenderson@beefboard.org

       Operating Committee Recommends Fiscal 2007 Beef Board Budget

          Beef checkoff budget focuses on promotion, research and information

AMARILLO, Texas (June 8, 2006) – The Beef Promotion Operating Committee today recommended a $53.15 million Cattlemen’s Beef Board budget for fiscal year 2007, reflecting a slight increase from the $52 million budget for fiscal 2006.

The budget for the Beef Board, which administers the national checkoff program, includes projected revenue of $45.6 million for fiscal 2007, plus money to be available from program budgets costing less than originally estimated.

The breakdown of the budget recommendation, which must be approved by the full Beef Board and USDA before any funds are expended, includes the following budget elements: promotion ($27.5 million); research ($7.4 million); consumer information ($6.6 million); industry information ($1.5 million); foreign marketing ($4.9 million); producer communications ($2.5 million); evaluation ($230,000); program development ($125,000); USDA oversight ($210,000); and administration ($2.1 million). The 2007 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2006.

“We looked carefully at the challenges and opportunities in the current marketplace to determine where we believe emphasis should be during the coming fiscal year to give cattlemen the best return on their checkoff dollar,” said Jay O’Brien, a producer from Amarillo, Texas, and chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the Beef Promotion Operating Committee, which met in Amarillo June 7-8.

“With record production domestically and continued challenges in our export markets, we wanted a budget that will continue concentrating on maintaining strong demand for beef,” O’Brien said. “In line with the Beef Promotion and Research Act and Order, we do this through a combination of promotion, research and information programs that aim to keep beef center-of-plate.”

In the coming stages of the fiscal 2007 budgeting process, the full Beef Board will be asked to approve the budget at its meeting in Reno in July. Joint industry advisory committees and subcommittees also will meet in Reno to prepare recommendations for specific program proposals that are funded with that budget. Those proposals will be considered by the Operating Committee in September, before the Oct. 1 beginning of the fiscal year, and must finally be approved by USDA before any checkoff dollars may be spent.

Funds from the Beef Board for national checkoff programs will be augmented by $11.29 million in voluntary contributions from state beef councils to their national Federation of State Beef Councils, a division of NCBA.